Chap. 47.] ' Preceded by an Earthquake. 337 



obferved by his electrometers, that the atmofphere 

 was charged in excefs with the electric fluid, and con- 

 tinued fo for feveral days during the eruption. 



About eleven o'clock on the night of the I2th of 

 June, the inhabitants of Naples were all fenfible of a 

 violent fhock of an earthquake ; the undulatory motion 

 was evidently from eaft to weft, and appeared to have 

 lafted near half a minute. The fky, which had been 

 quite clear, was foon after covered with black clouds. 

 The inhabitants of the towns and villages, which are 

 very numerous at the foot of Vefuvius, felt this earth- 

 quake ftill more fenfibly, and fay, that the fhock at 

 firft was from the bottom upwards, after which fol- 

 lowed the undulation from eaft to weft. This earth- 

 quake extended all over the Campagna Felice , and 

 the royal palace at Caferta, which is fifteen miles from 

 Naples, and one of the moft magnificent and folid 

 buildings in Europe (the walls being eighteen feet 

 thick) was fhaken in fuch a manner as to caufe great 

 alarm, and all the chamber bells rang. It was like- 

 wife much felt at Beneventum, about thirty miles from 

 Naples ; and at Ariano in Puglia, which is at a much 

 greater diftance; both theie towns, indeedj have been 

 -often afflicted with earthquakes. 



On Sunday the i5th of June, foofi after ten o'clock 

 at night, another mock of an earthquake was felt at 

 Naples, but did not appear to be quite fo violent.as 

 that of the i2th, nor did it laft fo long; at the fame 

 moment a fountain of bright fire, attended with a very 

 black fmoke and a loud report, was feeh to iffue, and 

 rife 'to a great height, from about the middle of the 

 cone of Vefuvius; foon after another of the fame 

 kind broke out at fome little diftance lower down ; 

 then, as is fuppofed by the blowing up of a covered 

 channel full of red hot lava, it had the appearance as if 

 VOL. II. Z the 



